Cellist Craig Hultgren has had more than 300 solo compositions created for him. He now resides outside of Decorah, Iowa as the farmer-cellist. The New York Classical Review commented that he, “…played with impressive poise and sensitivity…” for Dorothy Hindman’s 2016 chamber music retrospective at Carnegie Hall. Hultgren recently received a 2022 Performance Award from the Doug Davis Endowment for the video of his performance of Lukas Foss’s Capriccio at the Belvedere Chamber Music Festival in Memphis. A recipient of two Artist Fellowships from the Alabama State Council on the Arts, he was a member for many years of Thámyris, a contemporary chamber music ensemble in Atlanta. He is a founding member of Luna Nova, a new music ensemble with a large repertoire of performances available on iTunes. Hultgren is featured in four solo CD recordings including UK composer Craig Vear’s hyper-media concerto Black Cats and Blues on Métier Recordings. Hultgren has also entered the realm of digital online releases with four works Songs for Cello and Piano by Ben Hippen available on Spotify. For ten years, he produced the Hultgren Solo Cello Works Biennial, an international competition that highlighted the best new compositions for the instrument. He is a founding member and former President of both the Birmingham Art Music Alliance and the Metropolitan Youth Orchestras of Birmingham and its Scrollworks program. Currently, he is President of the Oneota Valley Community Orchestra Board of Directors in Decorah and also serves as Secretary for the Iowa Composers Forum after recently completing three years as Chair.

Hultgren plays programs for solo cello with an emphasis on contemporary music and the music of living composers. He is a potent soloist with orchestra and adept at masterclass instruction and student interaction. He has thirty years of applied teaching experience and is taking private students. Availability and rates are available at <chultgre@gmail.com>.